Hemorrhage Control: Lessons Learned From the Battlefield Use of Hemostatic Agents That Can Be Applied in a Hospital Setting

Herman A Allison

Crit Care Nurs Q Apr/Jun 2019;42(2):165-172

Uncontrolled blood loss is a major cause of preventable death worldwide. A severe injury can occur anywhere at any time. Controlling blood loss is an important issue for patient care in the hospital setting. Through the casualties of war, the lifesaving value of quick interventions was developed. Since 2001, new hemostatic agents have advanced the benefits of controlling blood loss. There are unforgettable lessons learned in the preventable deaths of many soldiers and should be passed on to the next generation of health care providers, to include all hospitals up to level I trauma hospitals. This article covers the current hemostatic agents that have been used for more than 17 years on the battlefield and are slowly making their way into the hospital settings. The hemostatic agents covered include QuikClot Combat Gauze, QuikClot Control+, WoundClot Hemostatic Gauze, HemCon Nasal Plug, and RevMedx's XSTAT hemostatic device. The standard of care should not be affected by the location of a patient, whether that patient is in a remote village overseas, on the battlefield, a rural farm, or at a major metropolitan hospital here in the United States.